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Friday Flowers In The Park Open Comments

Tea party rallies (I suppose you could call them protests of sorts) can involve several thousand to tens of thousands of people. They gather, they state their message, hear some speeches, maybe some music, and leave. After picking up after themselves. In many cases, it looked like they decided to mow and edge the grass while they were at it.

Now let’s contrast the tea parties with the occupy Wall Street crowd. Here is Zuccotti Park in Manhattan:

It’s fairly typical of many downtown parks. A nice place to relax at lunchtime or meet someone after work.

Unless a few hundred flea-infested protesters show up and decide to move in for several weeks.

They turn what was once a sanctuary of calm into a pit of filth that even overflows the bounds of the park.

It not only impacts those who might want to use the park for its intended purpose, but its neighbors and passers-by.

I have no idea what the added value of “camping” in a park like this is supposed to deliver, but the simple thought of it drove my opinion of these losers immediately to far, far below what it started out as. If they had simply protested and gone home, I would have at least a little bit of respect for them. To see them wallowing in filth for weeks on end for no apparent reason has moved me well past pity and well into simple disgust.

Back when I was young, my Dad would take me out to the deer camp occasionally which was part of a several thousand acre ranch. The owner lived in a one room shack, and each year the hunters would get him something for the house for Christmas. One year the installed electricity and put in a light bulb hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room. The next, they got him a radio so he could listen to the farm and ranch reports, etc. Eventually they put in some plumbing, a hot water shower, a sink, and so forth. Once they decided to put in a stool, but that’s where the old rancher drew the line. He said that he could never respect a man who defecated (my word, not his) in his own house. My Dad had so much respect for the man that he named his dog after him.

Maybe these protesters feel the same way – they just can’t do it inside. Freedom means not having any keys. Of course, it means that if you don’t want to be violated and have your stuff taken you had better know how to take care of yourself, which apparently few of them do.

The protesters have a distinct ideology and are bound by a deep commitment to radical left-wing policies. On Oct. 10 and 11, Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at my polling firm, interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York’s Zuccotti Park. Our findings probably represent the first systematic random sample of Occupy Wall Street opinion.

Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn’t represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda.

The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%).

An overwhelming majority of demonstrators supported Barack Obama in 2008. Now 51% disapprove of the president while 44% approve, and only 48% say they will vote to re-elect him in 2012, while at least a quarter won’t vote.

Fewer than one in three (32%) call themselves Democrats, while roughly the same proportion (33%) say they aren’t represented by any political party.

The attempts by the press to portray these protesters as anything but a contrived pageant of gasbags and self-centered misfits is unsurprising, unconvincing and yet, still appalling.

I linked to this last night, but it merits reposting. A police officer interviewed for the story compared the Occupy protesters camp to the theme of the great classic William Golding novel, Lord of the Flies.

On Monday morning, tensions came to a head when the man attacked a woman who was staying in the camp. That’s when Hughes intervened. A large group of people immediately surrounded the two, and pulled them apart.

A restive calm resumed until about 3 a.m. the next morning when the man, who was upset that one of his co-workers in the kitchen had received two pieces of chicken instead of the allotted one, went on the rampage again. He knocked over several tables, then picked up a fork and brandished it threateningly against three women.

That’s when people started discussing other options. Should they call the police? Should they subdue the man on their own? Opinions were divided. “We do everything by consensus in here, and consensus is a difficult process,” Hughes said. “But eventually people talked and came to an agreement that we were going to kick him out.”

About 3:30 Tuesday afternoon, a group of roughly 50 people gathered by the man’s tent and told him he had to leave. Some were speaking calmly. Others weren’t. It was then that the man pulled out a large kitchen knife and threatened the whole group. One woman calmly walked up to him and talked him down. She took away the knife.

But that wasn’t the end of it. The man kept yelling. He nearly attacked Hughes again. Then he took a piece of tape and placed it across his own mouth. He left, but later that night he returned. He went to several tents, including the collective food tent, and started throwing things around. It was only when someone picked up a piece of wood and cracked him across the head that the ordeal ended.

Like so many other things, the way to deal with the protesters is to just leave them alone. Without publicity, food and money donations would dry up, and without free food and money, they would soon leave. So, want to know who is behind this – see where the food and money is coming from. (Hint: No fair peeking in Moochelles garden to see if things are missing).

The Declaration of Independence was not only illegal, but actually treasonable. There is no legal principle then or now to allow a group of citizens to establish their own laws because they want to. What if Texas decided today it wanted to secede from the Union?

On Tuesday night, while Republican candidates in Nevada were debating such American issues as nuclear waste disposal and the immigration status of Mitt Romney’s gardener, American and British lawyers in Philadelphia were taking on a far more fundamental topic.

Namely, just what did Thomas Jefferson think he was doing?

Some background: during the hot and sweltering summer of 1776, members of the second Continental Congress travelled to Philadelphia to discuss their frustration with royal rule.

By 4 July, America’s founding fathers approved a simple document penned by Jefferson that enumerated their grievances and announced themselves a sovereign nation.

“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security”

Called the Declaration of Independence, it was a blow for freedom, a call to war, and the founding of a new empire.

It was also totally illegitimate and illegal.

At least, that was what lawyers from the UK argued during a debate at Philadelphia’s Ben Franklin Hall.

Why Obama Needs to Take Immediate Control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Can you imagine what would have happened if George Bush had proposed such a thing ?

Americans have deregulated and privatized major and minor areas of the economy for decades now. I believe we need to deregulate our mortgage industry, group all the government mortgage agencies into one pile and phase out the whole thing. If we don’t begin restructuring it now, they will come back to haunt us again.

G.E. Profit Up Despite ‘Volatile’ Economy I guess its not as hard to make a nice profit WHEN YOU CAN BUY CONGRESS-[careful – wb] TO WRITE TAX LAW SO THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO PAY TAXES!!
/cusses, spits, kicks hole in wall

Jobs, who was known for his prickly, stubborn personality, almost missed meeting President Obama in the fall of 2010 because he insisted that the president personally ask him for a meeting. Though his wife told him that Obama “was really psyched to meet with you,” Jobs insisted on the personal invitation, and the standoff lasted for five days. When he finally relented and they met at the Westin San Francisco Airport, Jobs was characteristically blunt. He seemed to have transformed from a liberal into a conservative.

“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for them.

Jobs also criticized America’s education system, saying it was “crippled by union work rules,” noted Isaacson. “Until the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year.

I’ve had some experience with Silicon Valley high tech folks a few times over the years, including once sitting in on a meeting of some Valley CEOs with a very slick California Democrat (who is now in Congress), who had them completely bamboozled that he was “pro-business.” High tech people are mostly clueless about politics, chiefly because their tech background leads them to think that political problems should be solved like engineering problems. This is why so many of them fall for the general “Progressive” message, since “Progressives” embrace a social engineering that seems harmonious with the way techies see their own world.

“Progressivism” sounds great, if you don’t think about it longer than a few milliseconds. The problem, at least up to recently, is that the vast majority of business has not given sufficient thought to where these policies inevitably lead. Most of this was due to the constraints of time and effort – business people are really busy running their far-flung enterprises.

What seems to happen is that they are aware of the legal environment when they open a new business or a new plant in a new area, because they have to be, they lose sight of that over time because changes in the legal environment tend to happen more slowly than in the market environment. That has recently changed; the legal environment has seen dramatic changes happen very quickly over the past few years. Furthermore, it appears as a tipping point has been reached where regulations have simply become too onerous for businesses to continue as usual.

Businesses are now feeling sufficient pain that they are actively seeking alternatives. These include offshoring, opening facilities in new locations domestically, packing up and moving, and in some cases simply deciding it’s no longer worth the hassles and closing.

Today’s the day! Never mind OBH, Fast and Furious, Solyndra, Wall Street or anything else, “cause it a’int gonna happen. It’ all over now. Excuse me a minute while I go put my tinfoil hat on, it may help.

The Oakland-based Family Radio International that stirred a global frenzy when it predicted the rapture would take 200 million Christians to heaven on May 21, now says the cataclysmic event will destroy the globe on Friday.

President Barack Obama used Thursday’s death of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to boast about his role in the dictator’s downfall during a Rose Garden speech to mark what he called “this momentous day.”

#19 EG: The foundation of grievances that were present between Texas and Mexico then are just as present now between Texas and Washington DC. The US Declaration of Independence from England is just as valid now, simply change a few words and Texas could use that one as well against DC. This quote from the Texas Declaration is just as valid today as it was then with a few very minor changes:

When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotismbusy-body nanny state, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army [of nanny state do gooders] and the priesthood [of environmental wackjob terrorists], both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants.

The sentence is not complete but this is how it appears in the document. This is the current situation between Texas and the Federal Govt today.

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.

Here’s an opportunity for some high-brow personality correction!
“Mr. Obama, you errant half-faced malt-worm, if you are going to spend our tax money like you are, please use some of it and buy yourself a clue!”

Interesting series of articles by a former State Senator from Missouri who got sent to Club Fed for obstruction of justice about his time in prison. Apparently, he knowingly filed a false affidavit about a relatively minor campaign activity.

The links at the end lead to other equally-interesting related articles.

Via JWF, who makes the obligatory Joe Biden shout-out so that I don’t have to. The news here isn’t really that they’d rather have a “Security Committee” deal with alleged rapists than the local P.D. The whole point of starting a utopian commune is that it’s as insular as possible.

No, the news here is that there’s apparently enough of a problem that they felt obliged to publish a pamphlet dealing with the subject at all. I confess, I haven’t been to any tea-party rallies so you’ll have to tell me: Are there a lot of “here’s what to do if you’re raped today” fliers circulating at those too?

And furthermore, if something had happened, the organizers would have encouraged the alleged victims to contact the police, if not actually calling them themselves.

A married mother of four from Florida ditched her family to become part of the raggedy mob in Zuccotti Park — keeping the park clean by day and keeping herself warm at night with the help of a young waiter from Brooklyn.

“I have no idea what the future holds, but I’m here indefinitely. Forever,” said Hessler, whose home in DeLand sits 911 miles from the tarp she’s been sleeping under.

Hessler — who ironically is married to a banker — arrived 12 days ago and planned to stay for a week, but changed her plans after cozying up to some like-minded radicals, including Rami Shamir, 30, a waiter at a French bistro in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

She swears she’s not romantically involved with her new friend.

and,

Hessler has spoken with her family — husband Curtiss, 42; son Peyton, 17; and daughters Kennedy 15, Sullivan, 13, and Veda, 7 — just three times since leaving them. “Friends are taking care of them,” she said.

Not everyone has supported her decision. “My mother told me I was being very selfish,” she admitted.

#39 Texpat: Her ex-husband and children are much better off now that she is out of the house. What a lunatic nutbag.

She swears she’s not romantically involved with her new friend.

Oh yeah, I believe that about as much as I do RFUs.
I wonder how much child support money her ex-husband is going to collect from her?? Is she going to be referred to as a dead-beat mom now/ Is she going to be castigated as one who abandoned her family?

Last month, Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan submitted a resolution to the U.N. General Assembly calling for giving individual states the right to control the Internet. The resolution, submitted Sept. 14, calls for “an international code of conduct for information security.”

It requests “international deliberations within the United Nations framework on such an international code, with the aim of achieving the earliest possible consensus on international norms and rules guiding the behavior of states in the information space.”

If anybody thinks that any good can come from the above, please let me know so that I can sell you my RFU ranch.

How much more coverage does the Cootchie Doctor want? He’s been in all the debates. I’ve seen all the cable news shows talking to him multiple times in interviews.

“None of our hard work matters unless I can raise the resources to break through the media blackout and take my message of liberty straight to the voters,” Paul wrote.

A study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism showed the Texas congressman has received the least overall coverage of any candidate, despite regularly placing in the middle of the Republican pack in polls. Pew found that between May and October, Paul was featured as the “primary newsmaker in only 2 percent of all election stories.”

He’s ahead of Cain in # of stories. How is Cain doing so well? Maybe its because he has a message people like?

I had #52 in the Modify editor to guess it might be Stick a fork in them, they’re done, when the phone rang and it was a hysterical old woman in the neighborhood wanting someone to come over and turn off her next door neighbor’s water that was running into her yard. So I had to go do that. Bad, bad HOA Nazi.

Ok, I know that I’ll be chastised, scorned, stoned or whatever by the regulars here Butt, it’s real early in the primaries and I like Cain but I wouldn’t count out Newt Gingrich,…I know, I heard that loud groan from all of y’all, and I know about all his baggage, but think about this; he is without a doubt the smartest one there and he’s been coming off as the only one that attacks Obama instead getting in a “Cat Fight” with Perry, Romney and Bachman and he is now in double digits. He has a lot of experience and ALL of his skeletons have been outed a thousand times over. One more thing, there is NO WAY Romney gets the nomination because 80% of the voters will be CONSERVATIVE Republicans. His numbers never change always 25% +/-, the conservative go between Perry, Cain, Bachman and that other guy. “That is all”
FLAME ON!

#74 SD: Gingrich is the smartest one on the stage, no doubt about it. His grasp of history and foreign policy matters are second to none. Herman Cain WISSIN KNOWS how to run a business and he knows what it is like to be poor. Gingrich has lots of political experience and baggage and Cain has neither baggage nor political experience (in the strictly political realm) although you can be sure that he knows how to sidestep landmines as he advanced in the big corporate realm. Cain is definitely one of the sharper knives in the drawer and would make an excellent president, Gingrich would be an outstanding vice president. The pair would be the best thing this country could ever ask for.

Bonecrusher, I agree, my first choice would be Cain, mainly because he is NOT a Politician! That said, I’m not sure he has enough feet on the ground to get R done. Gingrich is my second choice, much better than Bachman, Perry and the Rino, Romney, …HELLS BELLS! Laup Nor Nut-Case and all, is better than Perry/Romney. Most important, even an improperly prepared Grilled Cheese Sammich is better than Obama! Read, I’d vote for any of them in the general election,….sigh, Squawkster I’m not.

‘Bout the “Not a Politician” I think that just about anybody with average/above average intelligence would make a great President as long as he/she has common sense. Send me up there and I’d find/pick cabinet members that were the best in their fields for the position, this would not be hard to do.

Gingrich was a talented academic, a Georgia congressional representative and then Speaker for a short stint. He is an excellent self-promoter and prolific writer. However, Newt is a notorious, scatterbrained idea man with the additional reputation of not being a very good or well-organized and focused executive. As I have said a number of times in the past, due to the frustration endured by Tom DeLay and Dick Armey during Newt’s short reign, it was a very unhappy triumverate. The back channel stories do not describe Newt as the type of person you would want behind the desk in the Oval Office in a dire crisis.

Newt might make a great cabinet member, but I have very serious reservations about him as President.

The three candidates with any real, substantive executive experience are Perry, Cain and Romney.

Unfortunately, in my book, and barring some unforeseen blunder, it looks as if Romney is going to win the nomination. But anything is possible in politics – almost.

Texpat, you make good points, but Romney couldn’t even beat Mc Cain. Remember, this time ALL of the Conservatives will be voting and I just don’t think that Romney’s can get past his “Obama Care” in Massachusetts. Also, I didn’t mean to infer that Gingrich would make it all the way I just thought that he did a lot better than I’d have thought.

I wasn’t trying to debate you on Newt. I was just offering my observations.

Yes, Newt is very articulate and can shine during a debate, but I cannot forget his dalliances with Hillary and Nancy Pelosi, his being enamored with Cap & Trade, his photo-ops with Al Sharpton and all his other drifting and spacing out over issues. A man who does these things is not a man who resides upon rock solid principles. Gravitas when it counts.

Herman cain’s current position on abortion is that he is pro-life/no abortions, no exceptions but that government shouldn’t be in the business of deciding who gets an abortion but that abortions will not be legal if he were President of the United States.

Got it?

I love Herman Cain and I love his overall message. He’s dead-on correct on many things but there’s other things he obviously needs to sit down and think through. As shown, abortion is one. Freeing Guantanamo prisioners (and dealing with terrorists in general), and how to execute protecting American interests abroad are among them. He needs to think these and perhaps other things through. Especially if he intends on winning the primaries.

This is awesome. While this article is all touchy-feely about “climate farming,” what I see is an entrepreneur, a risk-taker, a motivated businessman who found a niche in his market and knows how to use resources wisely. He located resources, helped his local community, is furthering his children’s education, is opening trade opportunities for others to exploit, is modeling excellent behavior for his peers to follow, and generating wealth for himself and his village.

If he’s elected, abortion will (sadly) still be legal. It would take an act of Congress to change that and That. Will. Not. Happen. As much as I would like it to be the case, there is no way Congress will pass legislation outlawing abortion.

Cain could issue an executive order that no public monies may be used to pay for or otherwise procure abortions.

Unfortunately, in my book, and barring some unforeseen blunder, it looks as if Romney is going to win the nomination. But anything is possible in politics – almost.

I seriously doubt it. He’s been running for 6 years now, has more money than anybody else, and still can’t get past 25%—in a good week. He’s counting on a big win in NH, but he counted on that same big win before and it didn’t pan out. NH voters are notorious for making up thier minds late, and right now 68% of NH Primary voters are undecided.

Mitt also has a problem with NH voters—-the Nevada Caucus (they’ve scheduled it before the NH Primary). Many of them will feel betrayed by him if he doesn’t boycott it. The Union Leader conducted a poll and well over 60% of the respondents wanted him to pass on that caucus.

If Cain takes Iowa, I’m failry confident he’ll take NH, or come in second in a squeaker. Romeny not only needs to win NH, but he needs to win it big—cuz he’s NOT going to win South Carolina—-or anyplace else in the South.

Look for Mitt to fold sometime in February, especially if any of the lower tier candidates bows out and endorses Cain after Iowa.

What I meant about Herman Cain needing to think out the abortion issue is that Cain’s recently taken the position that he’s pro-life, no exceptions but that government should not be involved in deciding who gets abortion. This is a classic liberal position. In the end this means that although Cain is anti-abortion, the procedure will still remain (fully) legal. The day after this position he told FOXNews that he’s pro-life and that abortion would not be legal. To my knowledge, he’s never consolodated these two seemimly contradictory statements. What Cain needs to think through is exactly how to govern the issue of abortion if he became president.

Cain could issue an executive order that no public monies may be used to pay for or otherwise procure abortions.

Though he did not say so explicitly, he did say that he’d make sure government money does not fund abortions so I thin ksuch an executive order would be made by a President Cain. But it still seems that abortion in and of itself would remain legal. furthermore, one of Bush’s greatest accomplishments on the abortion front was to prosecute harm criminally inflicted upon an unborn child in addition to harm criminally inflicted upon the pregnant mother. Would Cain do this? Would he make further accomplishments on the abortion front? From his statement, I think one can successfuilly argue that he would not. He needs to be clear as to what he’d do.

It would take an act of Congress to change that

My understanding is that Congress has nothing to do with abortion’s legality. It was the Taco Supreme Court that made abortion a “Constitutional right”. So ,it does not matter what Congress does. Nor do I think Congress should do anythying. What needs to be done is to return the decision power back to the states. So Cain could take the federalist position and I’d be perfectly fine with that. He should also speak as to what types of judges he’d seek tio appoint as president. Would they be anti-abortion? constitutional originalists? Personally, I do not care what a judge’s position on abortion is so long as the said judge is a constitutional judge. Roe v. Wade is long due to be overturned. Heck, it should never have made it through the Supreme Court in the first place.

My understanding is that Congress has nothing to do with abortion’s legality.

Congress has more to do with abortion’s legality than any President would.

Only two things can actually change the legal standing of abortion:

1. A Constitutional Amendment.

2. A reversal of the Supreme Court.

The biggest effect any President can have on any future of the legality of Abortion is the appointment of Supreme Court Justices.

I believe that I am not alone in being more confident that the governing philosophies and principles of any Supreme Court Justice a President Cain would appoint would be more in keeping with my thoughts (and yours) on that issue (and on Gun Rights issues) than any that would be appointed by a President Romney.

Congress has more to do with abortion’s legality than any President would.

Only two things can actually change the legal standing of abortion:

1. A Constitutional Amendment.

2. A reversal of the Supreme Court.

Good points. They have control over a constitutional amendment and the Senate does vote to confirm judicial nominations.

The biggest effect any President can have on any future of the legality of Abortion is the appointment of Supreme Court Justices.

I believe that I am not alone in being more confident that the governing philosophies and principles of any Supreme Court Justice a President Cain would appoint would be more in keeping with my thoughts (and yours) on that issue (and on Gun Rights issues) than any that would be appointed by a President Romney.

Which are two reasons Cain should focus on what kinds of judges he’ll appoint/nominate as president.

The Polish champion of freedom and liberty, founder of Solidarity, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, and first President of modern Poland Lech Walesa had been rumored to possibly be traveling to New York to stand with Occupy Wall Street protesters. Press accounts reporting this “breathless” news had given all of us pause.

snip

When Walesa’s comments hit the AP wire last week, my team immediately reached out to our Polish contacts. We made the point that the political themes of Occupy Wall Street may have started out with some of the principles that we share, but OWS themes were rapidly being morphed into anti-freedom and anti-liberty messages. At the core is the want for a big, powerful central government to dominate the lives of individual citizens.

Using biggovernment.com plus other news sources, rapidly we painted an accurate picture of the groups training, leading, and organizing the “movement.” The movement is organized by anarchists, Code Pink, the American Communist movement, jihadists, anti-Israel, socialist, and anti- free enterprise interests. OWS folks are politically to the left of President Barack Obama.

At the Lech Walesa Institute Foundation in Warsaw, they were thankful to receive this information.

Based on our discussion and intervention, President Walesa is not going to get involved with the OWS. He is not comfortable with the “organizations” behind the movement. It was not a difficult discussion.

H/T to AoSHQ who reminds us

And for those of you morons who remember the Cold War, this was a big f’n deal:

If you understand the concept of a bell curve, you (and I) can see where a conservative would have a hard time getting elected. The more you move toward the center of the curve, where most of the voters reside, the more moderate you have become. After all, the objective is to win. While I find it reprehensible, the fact is that the more I butt my conservative head against the wall and threaten to not vote for the candidate, the further to the left he must move to make up the slack. It really sucks, but that’s the way it is.